The impact of Scottish independence on the country's financial services industry is not only unknown, but probably unknowable until a Yes vote actually happens, representatives from the pension fund industry were told last night.

At the event, staged by the UK National Association of Pension Funds on the eve of its annual investment conference in Edinburgh, Owen Kelly, the chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise, which represents the Scottish financial sector, said: "We can't really know the consequences of a yes vote until there has been one."